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Results tagged ‘ Lon Simmons ’

Today is Lon Simmons’ 90th birthday. Lon started broadcasting Giants games when they moved to San Francisco in 1958 and fans soon grew to love his trademark call of “Tell it Goodbye”. In honor of his birthday, the Giants threw him party and among the friends in attendance were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Ed Bressoud, Dave Flemming, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper. He also threw the ceremonial first pitch before the game to catcher Sergio Romo. On behalf of the Giants, Happy Birthday Lon!

The final Friday home game each year is dedicated to one of the Giants greats – Willie McCovey. Since 1980, the award is awarded to the Giants player who exemplifies the spirit and leadership shown by Willie throughout his career. This years award will be presented during a pre-game ceremony on Friday, September 21.

In 2008, to celebrate our 50th anniversary in San Francisco we installed a timeline on the View Level at the ballpark which highlighted some of our great players and amazing moments. We know that all of our fans are not able to come to a game at the park, or those who do may not be old enough to remember some of our alumni. For this road trip we decided to showcase the timeline and give everyone a bit more information about the moments. One banner, lots of recent memories are highlighted here.

2 score and 10 years ago our team brought forth for this city, a winning tradition, conceived in teamwork, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created Giants…

Last week we featured a special reunion of the 1962 team to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first World Series in San Francisco with 13 members of the 1962 team participating in the ceremony. As Mike Krukow said, “They set the tone for what it means to be a San Francisco Giant.”

The San Francisco Giants have signed left-handed pitcher Madison Bumgarner to a five-year extension through 2017 with a club/vesting option for 2018 and a club option for 2019, Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean announced today. The five-year extension covers Bumgarner through his arbitration years and his first year of free agency.

“Preserving our core pitching for the long term remains a top priority for the Giants and today’s extension certainly helps further that goal,” said Sabean. “Madison has already proven that he is one of the best left handed pitchers in the game today and we are confident that he will continue to succeed for many years to come.”

Bumgarner, who is currently the second youngest player on the Giants’ 25-man roster at just 22 years old, has been a vital piece to the Giants’ starting rotation since being called up to the big leagues in 2009. Since then, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound left-hander has posted a 21-20 record with a 3.12 ERA (117er, 337.0ip) in 57 games (54 starts) over parts of four seasons in a Giants uniform.

Last season the North Carolina native finished 11th in the National League with a 3.21 ERA and he reached the 200.0 inning plateau for the first time in his professional career. His 8.40 strikeouts per 9.0 innings in 2011 was the third-best ratio among all NL left-handed pitchers behind Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw (9.57) and Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee (9.21).

At 20 years and 38 days old, Bumgarner became the franchise’s youngest pitcher to start a game in his Major league debut since the Giants moved West in 1958. A year later he became the fifth-youngest pitcher to start a World Series game and fourth-youngest to win a World Series contest at just 21 years and 91 days old.

Drafted by the Giants in the first round (10th overall) of the 2007 First-Year Player draft, Bumgarner has gone 1-1 with a 3.97 ERA in his first two starts this season. He’s scheduled to pitch tomorrow night against Phillies’ right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton.

Madison Bumgarner talks to Lon Simmons during the 1962 Team Reunion on April 13, 2012.

Bruce Bochy shakes hands with Madison Bumgarner after the Giants beat the Padres on September 5, 2011.

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We our traveling to Australia and Antarctica in our third installment of “Giants World”. The fun illustrations highlight players from Jim Mutrie to Matt Cain, while also showcasing Mike Murphy and Jon Miller. The entire “World” can be seen in the windows on King Street and in the 2012 Giants Yearbook.

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